


Terasophobia

by Escalus



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Despair, M/M, Pack Feels, Post-Season/Series 05, Self-Esteem Issues, True Alpha Scott McCall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-15
Updated: 2016-06-15
Packaged: 2018-07-15 03:58:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,036
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7206788
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Escalus/pseuds/Escalus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After the battle with Theo and the Dread Doctors was over, Scott McCall had basically ignored Corey Bryant as he tried to enjoy his senior year.   But something was wrong with the last remaining chimera, and when Mason asked him to intervene, Scott felt he doesn't have any choice.   To help Corey, Scott's was going to have to reveal a part of himself that he never wanted to.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Terasophobia

**Author's Note:**

> Terasophobia means 'fear of monsters.'

The rain came down in great sheets of water, lashing the lacrosse field. It got in your eyes, it soaked your clothes, and it made the grass so slippery that most of the team was covered in mud from sliding into the dirt. “Coach, this is madness. We’re risking colds, flu, pneumonia, shingles!” Stiles pleaded. “It’s a monsoon!”

“Stuff it, Stilinski. Practicing in the rain builds character. Ask any professional soccer player.” The Coach, of course, had an umbrella. He blew the whistle. “Keep running.” 

Stiles scrunched up his face in exasperation. “I have never understood you.” 

“Run, run, run!” shouted Coach. He gestured imperiously with the umbrella.

Stiles started to run, slipping on the wet grass, as Scott ran up next to him, laughing, and kept him from falling over while running backwards. “Oh, you’re gonna laugh when I break my neck and you have to wheel me around in a chair for the rest of my life.” 

“Hey, come on, it’s not that bad.” Scott was totally lying. It was that bad. “And, if that happens, I’m passing you off to Lydia.” 

Stiles gave him the death glare as he kept running. “Frickin’ werewolves. Cheaters with cheating reflexes.” 

To add insult to injury, Liam ran up to the other side of him and did the same backwards run, subconsciously mimicking the senior. He wasn’t as content with practicing in a downpour as Scott was. “I’m sure the principal is going to come out and stop Finstock any moment now. Coach probably wants to make sure we beat Devenford this weekend.” 

Scott announced, “Of course we’re going to beat them.” He smiled; he was having a great final semester of high school. He had gotten probationary admission to Davis, so everything was now indescribably great. Even the rain was great. “They can’t stop us.”

Stiles was, in fact, miserable, so he decided to be a downer. “We’ve never ever beaten Devenford.” He slowed down just a bit. 

“Brett’s been talking trash about us, anyway.” Liam said, offhandedly. Anyone could have told that he was trolling. 

“Trash? What?” Anyone but Scott, that is. He turned around to run the right way. “What’s he saying?”

“He said it’s a good thing you’ve got being a true alpha to fall back on, ‘cause if all you had was lacrosse, it’d be pretty sad.” Liam winked at Stiles, when he thought that Scott wasn’t looking.

Stiles laughed so hard that he face planted on the wet grass. “Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrn.”

The two werewolves stop and pick Stiles up out of the ground. Scott smirked. “Liam, you won’t mind if bury Brett three feet under the ground, do you?” The other two knew he didn’t mean it, but it was good to hear him sounding like a jock. 

“Go for it.”

“Oh, my god,” Stiles teased. “Did Jackson come back and bite you or something? You’re turning into a douche.” 

They started jogging again but even Coach realized that the rain wasn’t going to let up, so after listening to his diatribe against weakness, everyone headed back towards the locker room. 

Scott didn’t get there; he saw Mason standing by the door, and he picked up his scent. It was cloudy with anxiety. He paused, letting the others go in without him and went around the corner to where Mason was standing. “Hey, what’s the matter?”

“Oh, hey, Scott. I really wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk to you, but ... you kinda smelled me didn’t you? I gotta remember that.” Mason felt embarrassed and pulled at his shirt collar. “Do you have time? Or it could wait until later, after you get changed; it isn’t anything life threatening.”

Mason’s whole demeanor would have been cute if Scott couldn’t smell the anxiety pouring off of the sophomore. “No, no. You don’t mind me being wet, we can talk now. And you don’t ever have to worry about coming to me.”

Mason started walking away and Scott followed him. Scott wished he had asked to change first, but it was too late now. He made a wet dog joke to himself and went along. As much as he was in a good mood, he understood that this was part of his life. He wondered why Mason kept walking until they were on the other side of the school. Did he want to be far enough away that Liam couldn’t overhear them talking? 

“I wasn’t sure if this is ... if you are the person who I should be talking to, but ...“ Mason took a deep breath. “It’s about Corey.”

Scott rubbed a hand over his face, ostensibly to get the rain water that was dripping from his hair into his face off, but also as a gesture of exasperation. He never knew what to do about Corey; they had gotten off to such a terrible start that he was sure they’d never be friends. The worst part was that it wasn’t Corey’s fault. He’d been poisoned by an ex-boyfriend, tortured and murdered by the Doctors, and bullied and manipulated by Theo. Scott invading his mind hadn’t helped at all. He’d done something that everyone had warned him was dangerous in a fit of frustration. 

Mason kept on. “I think there’s something wrong with him. Not in the physical sense or even the supernatural sense. He’s ... been acting weird. He only talks to me.”

Scott shrugged. “You are his boyfriend.”

“No, I mean he _only_ talks to me. He and his parents don’t talk much, but now he gives them one-word answers only if they force him. He’s even been avoiding Hayden, and they were close ... as close as they could get.“ Mason swallowed nervously and his voice dropped to a whisper. “And ... he’s been spending a lot of time invisible. I mean, like _hours_ a day. I don’t think that’s healthy. Yesterday, he vanished in the hallway when we said goodbye; no one saw it, I think, but it is like he didn’t want anyone else to see him but me.”

No, that did not sound good to Scott, either. “What do you think I can do?”

Mason took a moment to gather his thoughts. “If any of the authority figures in his life knew about him the way we know about him, I’d go to them. But they don’t. I’m not the type of boyfriend that gives ultimatums; I don’t want to be that person. But you are an authority figure; you’re the only one who really knows what’s going on. I want you to talk to him.”

“You want me to confront him.”

“Yeah. Yes. I know it’s unfair of me to ask this of you, but I’m worried, and he won’t talk to me about it. I tried.”

Scott sighed. Mason was right, as usual; it was his responsibility. Corey could be headed into some real problems, and it did no one any good to ignore it. “Okay. I’ll talk to him.”

*****

Scott waited in the darkness outside of Corey’s house. He could be stealthy when he wanted to be, but he was sure that eventually someone was going to spot him. He wished Derek had given him a ‘lurking unseen’ tutorial before he left. He was not even sure how he was going to approach the chimera without frightening him or causing him to run away, but he was sure that it was better to meet him here than trying to corner him at school. 

Corey finally left his house. Scott had been listening, and he hadn’t told his parents where he was going or when he’d back. Mason had told him that Corey’s parents weren’t as engaged as his own, but it was another thing to see just how much they weren’t. 

Taking a deep breath, Scott hurried to intercept him before he could get in the car. “Corey?” He raised his hand. “Uh, hi!” _Wow, that was so lame._

Corey froze with his keys still in his hand. Scott could smell the slight chemical scent, like broken lightbulbs, that he had long ago realized marked a chimera when they were excited. But he also detected a rush of fear – not anxiety, but outright terror. Corey was terrified of _him_.

“Hey,” Scott stuttered over the word, since Corey hadn’t said anything back. “I was just wondering if you had time to talk to me for a bit.”

“Uhm ...” Corey began to tell the least convincing lie in the world. “I have to go meet someone.”

Scott closed his eyes for a moment to focus and respond in a positive way. “Corey, you remember I can hear when you lie, right? I promise I’m not angry. I’m not going to hurt you.” 

Corey, still radiating terror, swallowed. “Okay.” He didn’t seem to have anything else to say. 

Scott tried again to calm him down. “Look, man, let’s just go somewhere, sit down and talk this out. I know we’ve not always gotten along, and I know that it’s my fault, but ... we could go to my house. My mom’s there. It’ll be okay. You can drive if you want.”

Corey took another deep breath. “Okay.” The stench of fear lessened, but didn’t disappear as they got into the car. The kid – though he was only two years younger than Scott, he had a ‘kid’ look to him – was in a bad way. After all, he wasn’t defenseless, but he had to have been close to bolting to be this afraid. After the car started, Corey asked: “Were you waiting for me?”

“Yeah. Sometimes, we just need to talk to each other. I could tell that you’ve not been doing too well, recently.” He hoped that Corey couldn’t tell that he was lying; he didn’t want to put any stress on his and Mason’s relationship, given how important it seemed to both of them. “It’s good to talk, and there aren’t many people you can talk to about things that only we can talk about.”

Corey kept driving and suddenly said with a surly expression. “I’m not your responsibility.”

“Yes, you are.” Scott shrugged. “It’s just the way it is. I’ve given up being able to pretend that I could ignore stuff a long time ago.”

They drove in silence. Scott had got in Corey and him to the same place, but he couldn’t figure out how to get him to talk. The fear was still there but not as intense. He’d get Corey inside the house, and then he’d broach the subject cautiously. He tried to stay loose and friendly; fighting bad guys was so much easier than this.

As they were driving, suddenly Corey blurted out. “If you are going to tell me to leave, you can just say that, you don’t have to be nice about it.”

Scott gaped at the exclamation. “Why would I tell you to leave?” he asked honestly.

Corey clenched up. Scott could see his knuckles grip the steering wheel.

“Corey, I ... “ He shook his head. “This is my fault. It’s been months. I should have talked to you earlier. Let’s wait until we’re at my house.”

The rest of the drive was in silence. Scott didn’t even know how to move on from this point. He hadn’t made an effort to reach out to Corey before now. It is not like he had any specific complaint about him, but the boy had changed from a sort-of enemy to an ally sort of by default. But, in a way, so had Hayden, and he’d gotten to know her. Maybe he had an easier time because he had bit Hayden. Maybe, he thought, it was lingering guilt. Talking to Corey would force him to acknowledge one of the worst times of his life. 

They pulled into his house and he brought them inside, tension hanging between them like some sort of force field. His mom was there and greeted them both with a smile; she was the best. She always had been.

“Mom, this is Corey.” He nearly rolled his eyes; of course she had met him before. “We’re going to talk upstairs, but can we grab some drinks?

“Sure. Welcome to our house, Corey.”

Corey stuttered a thank you, forcing himself to talk.

Scott flashed back to memories of other times the chimera had been in the house. One time, he had forced his claws into the boy’s neck; another time he had yanked him out of thin air. He had been stupid to bring him here now with the expectation that he would be comfortable. He offered him a drink, and guided him upstairs. 

“Sit. Make yourself ... “ Scott paused, awkwardly. “As comfortable as you can.” Corey sat down on the edge of the bed, but he still didn’t speak. 

Scott took a seat on the bed as well, at the same level but not too close. “Corey, could you tell me what’s wrong? I mean, tonight, you’ve seemed really off.”

Again, there was a surge of pure terror from the chimera. His hands clenched into fists and he opened his mouth, but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. 

As Corey raised his fists from the bed in distress, Scott instinctively reached out to take the hand closest to him. It was meant to be reassuring to fight against the flood of horror that was filling the other boy. 

He didn’t realize it would cause Corey to flail and try to bolt. Corey’s other hand came swinging wildly and struck him right on the side of the head. He hadn’t realized that Corey was this strong – was he getting stronger? Scott felt his cheek bone crack with the blow, but he managed to a keep a hold of Corey’s other hand as well as the chimera pulled him off the bed in his attempt to flee. Luckily, he was pretty strong as well. 

They tumbled to the floor, struggling against each other, though Corey didn’t try to hit him again. When he realized that he wasn’t going to get away he just suddenly gave up, panting so heavily that Scott thought he would hyperventilate. “ImsorryImsorryImsorry,” he whispered in a panic. 

Scott managed to get his other hand on Corey and just hold him in place while the fear swept over him. They were just lying on the floor as if they had been wrestling. He’d done that with Stiles a lot when they were younger. Minutes passed.

Corey wasn't even looking at him, just lying on the floor, and he probably didn’t even mean to say it above a whisper. He knew Scott could hear it, though. “I don’t know what I am.”

Scott listened as he lay there. He did not know what to say. He stood up and helped Corey to his feet without saying anything.

“I am not human. How do I work? You guys, you guys know how things work. I don’t know how I work. How did they change me? I was dead. They stabbed me right here.” He touched his chest. “I don’t even know how Theo brought me back. What did he do? I don’t know what I am.” 

The words came out as a surrender, as if he by saying them, he was making them real. Scott guided him to sit back down on the bed. He squatted to watch Corey’s face. He was crying. Of course he was crying. Scott wanted to hug him, because that was what he usually did, but he did not know how the boy would take it. Scott suddenly was struck with his own thought – _when did I forget what it felt like to wake up in the middle of the woods with no idea how I got there?_

“Every night I go to bed and the last thing I think about is – what if I just stop working? What if I just don’t wake up? It could happen. What if I get sick, really sick, and medicine doesn’t work on me? You can go to that veterinarian, he knows all about creatures like werewolves and werecoyotes and banshees and he can help you, but he can’t help me, because I am the only chimera left. I’m wrong; I shouldn’t be here.”

Scott opened his mouth to offer comfort, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t contradict anything Corey said, except for that last self-judgment.

“And what if I am worse than wrong? What if I suddenly start murdering people? Or I eat brains? Or I give people diseases? They didn’t really care about anything but their experiments; would they have cared if I became a real monster?” Corey couldn’t meet his eyes and then flopped back down on the bed. “I have nightmares about killing people. My parents. Hayden. Everyone but Mason. And I think, I think – that’s a good thing right? Because I love him. But what if it isn’t that? Maybe they made me incapable of hurting their success, even though you guys stopped him from being that. What if I only love Mason because they made me love him?” 

Scott felt the fear radiating off of him but now it was tinged with a sadness that was more like despair. He sat back down on the bed, desperately thinking for some way to reassure the chimera.

“I keep waiting for something else to happen. For that deputy to take me out to the Nemeton and burn me up. Or you to finally decide you have to put me down.” Corey covered his face with his hands.

“Corey, I don’t _put people down_.” Scott said firmly. “You know that. I am not going to let anyone do that to you.”

Corey looks up at him and then sits up. “Maybe you should. I could be something terrible. You don’t know that I’m not. No one knows that I’m not. It’s all I think about.” The sincerity almost made Scott tear up. “I might even be going crazy. I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I just want to run away, but there is no place to run, because it’s not Beacon Hills at all; it’s me. ”

Scott looked down at his lap, reaching for solutions. “Let me tell you one thing. I am going to talk to my mom and Dr. Deaton. They’re smarter than me. We can try to figure out something about you, so you don’t have to worry about … medical issues?” There wasn’t any better way to describe it. “About the other things – you haven’t done anything other than dream about doing terrible things, right? You still decide what you do?”

Corey whispered. “I think so.”

Scott put both hands on the younger teen’s shoulders. “I‘ve learned a lot of things since I got bit, and the one thing that I’ve learned is that it isn’t what we can’t control that defines what we are, it is what we do when we have control. If you start having to eat people’s brains, we’ll find a way to help you.” 

Corey said quietly. “Why would you do that for me? Wasn’t I your enemy? Why am I your friend now?”

Scott took his hands off and looked at his feet. “Can you keep a secret, Corey?”

Corey sat quietly on the bed. “Yeah.”

“I don’t know how much Mason has talked to you about werewolves. Given how excited he gets over things, I bet it’s a lot. But I’m sure someone has mentioned that I am a true alpha. Do you know what that means?”

“It means you didn’t kill or inherit being an alpha. You earned it.” 

“Yeah. And I suppose that’s true, though I never really felt that I earned it.” He laughed at himself, trying to lighten the mood. “But after that, what it meant to be a true alpha after you become one, for a long time, I didn’t really have any idea. I wasn’t sure what made me different from Derek or Satomi or Deucalion or any other alpha I had ever met.” 

Corey frowned in response. He had met Deucalion and Theo had claimed to be their alpha, but he wasn’t. He didn’t know much about it. 

“All the alphas I met seemed to be stronger than me. Maybe it’s because I’m young, but everyone acted like it was a big deal, that I was a true alpha, but it did not stop me from getting my butt whipped … a lot. It didn’t stop me from being hurt or even make me heal faster. So, after we finished with the Doctors, I started trying to figure out something on my own. But there’s something else you need to know. Did anyone tell you about what Stiles and I and … another friend of ours did once to find our parents?”

Corey shook his head and Scott went on. “To make a long story short, we died to find them. We were dead for sixteen hours before we came back, so you see, we have more in common than you might think. Alan – Dr. Deaton – told us we’d have a darkness around our hearts. Forever.” 

By his reaction, Corey had not heard this. He was just looking with wide eyes, but Scott could still smell the fear. He was going to have to show him; words weren’t going to do it. He stood up and went to the bedroom door, locking it. He absolutely did not want his mother to see this.

“I am not saying it’s the same; you didn’t willingly die and come back.” Scott tried to calm him once again. “None of this is the secret you need to keep. This next part, I mean, I haven’t even told Stiles about this, but he … he has his own burdens about what happened. He doesn’t need mine, too, understood?”

Corey agreed. “What are you going to show me?”

Scott turned away and started taking off his clothes. He paused, embarrassed, because he knows how this might look. “It’s just better if I do it this way. It’s ... “ He blushed. “It’s just better. And, it might seem frightening, but don’t worry. I’ll probably kinda act really, really weird, but I won’t hurt you.” 

“I’m sorry, but you are kind of freaking me out,” Corey wasn’t looking at him but at the floor. “You sure that this is going to help?”

Scott stopped; all he had left on was his jeans. “You feel that you don’t know what you are, that you’re actually dangerous. That you don’t belong here?”

Corey responded clearly. “Yes.”

“You aren’t the only one.” Scott sighed. He knew why he was going to do it, but he hated it. He hated it so much, but he didn’t have any choice. If he was going to help Corey, he had to get him to trust him. Maybe this would make up for what he had done before. “The alpha that bit me, he didn’t ask. You’ve never met him, and I hope you never have to meet him. He was crazy, and I don’t know, maybe he had a right to be crazy, but just because bad things have happened to you doesn’t give you the right to hurt others. He hurt a lot of people; he would have hurt more, but we stopped him.”

Scott turned to face the mirror he had in his room. “For the longest time, the thing I was most afraid of was that … he hadn’t just made me into a werewolf, that he had made me into a monster like him. I don’t want to say it’s the same as what happened to you, but I want to show that I understand.” He slid off his jeans. “Because just a few months ago, I found out that I could do this.”

The transformation had to be frightening for Corey; it was frightening to Scott. The very idea of it had tortured him for a year after the sacrifice; he had been haunted by shadows. Everyone had thought that they were just hallucinations, but he realized now that his weren’t. They were a warning. 

Corey scrambled back onto the bed as Scott’s bones snapped, as his jaw elongated and his legs folded and unfolded. Scott put one hand on the mirror, and it was no longer a hand but a massive paw with huge claws, larger and sharper than he had ever had before. He didn’t look exactly like Peter; he had more fur and his muzzle was sharper and longer, but he was now the monstrous shadow brought to life. 

“I’m not going to hurt you.” The creature grated out. It was so hard to talk in this form. “But look at me.” There was no particular command to it, but a plea. Corey was hiding his face, too scared even to vanish.

The creature stepped towards Corey. Corey opened his eyes; Scott must have been seven feet tall and hundreds of pounds heavier. “I was Peter’s beta; that always will be true.” The words were distorted by the distended jaws and the twisted bones, but Corey understood them. “That’s what the darkness shows me, every day. I could become him any night I choose.”

Corey reached out when Scott paused in front of him and touched the fur-covered shoulder. Maybe the chimera had been so scared that he was past being frightened. Scott closed his eyes as the other boy touched him. “I could be this any night I choose.”

Scott wanted Corey to understand that he knew what it felt like not to know yourself – to be afraid of yourself. A few minutes passed and he focused on transforming back into a less terrifying form.

“But I could be more. Being a true alpha means that the power came from me, which means I’m the only one who can limit it. If I really wanted to, I could be more monstrous than Peter. I could be stronger, faster, tougher than La Bête.” His bones cracked as they reshaped themselves into a more human form, but his claws were still sharp and his mouth was full of fangs and his eyes burned like red coals. “At night, I dream about what I could have done if I had just pushed myself. I could have been fast enough to save Allison, I could have ripped that thing out of Stiles, I could have broken Kate and her berserkers in half.” He snarled at the memories. “All I would have to do is just … push. Push until I was something new.”

He reached out and took Corey by the shoulders. Corey didn’t even think of fighting it off, as he was fascinated by the change. “We’re all monsters, Corey.” His claws didn’t break the chimera’s skin, but he suspected they were still painful. “We can’t stop that, but that’s not all we have to be. Let me help you.”

Corey took a ragged breath in with the pain; he was trembling. “How?”

“I don’t have to push, because I have a pack.” He growled again, but this was more a challenge to the rest of the world. “I have them, all of them, and they have me. I don’t have you. You’re afraid of me, and I …” He stuck his face close to Corey’s face until they were almost touching. “I know why. But ... “

He was losing words. He didn’t know how to explain it without it sounding stupid or worse sounding like he was coming on to him. He was suddenly aware that he was very naked. How could he ask Corey to trust him? To need him? To let him need Corey?

“Be pack. You don’t have to be afraid. Be my pack.” 

Corey suddenly leaned forward and kissed him. Scott, shocked, let him do it, though his mind seized up at it. _Kissing me? Why?_ He wasn’t upset by the kiss itself, but he was stunned. As their lips parted, Scott realized at least a little of what this meant. It was a gesture of trust – his mouth was still full of fangs – fangs that had always scared Corey. 

Scott opened his mouth and kissed him back, but not too hard. He didn’t want to hurt Corey; he wanted Corey to keep kissing him. He wanted to make Corey happy, to make Corey trust him, to make Corey forget about all of the mistakes he had made. 

Time slowed to a stop as they kissed and then Scott allowed guilt to rise up in his throat. Corey had a boyfriend, and Scott was the alpha. He had the power here. He pulled away. 

“Thanks,” Scott said, and immediately regretted it because it sounded lame to him. He fell to the side, so they were now lying next to each other on the bed. “I guess that means you want to try?”

Corey whispered an affirmative. “You don’t think I’m dangerous. You want me around.”

Scott nodded and put a hand on Corey’s face. It was supposed to be reassuring. “We’re all dangerous, but not to each other. Not if we’re together.” He blushed for a moment. “I’m gonna … put some pants on. Just stay there.” He slid on a pair of basketball shorts that were next to the bed. 

“You should talk to Mason. Tell him everything.” He smiled to himself at the memory of the times he had been able to do that same thing. “Even what you are afraid of.”

“You don’t think he’ll hate me?”

“No,” Scott replied. “I think he’ll tell you that he wouldn’t care if they did that to you. He cares for you very much and he’ll think – we all think – that you care for him. About all that other stuff, we’ll deal with it if it happens. Okay?”

“Okay.” Corey closed his eyes. “Would you mind if I stayed here tonight?”

“No. Take your shoes off, though.” Scott understood that this was a test; he pulled on another shirt. “You want to play some video games for a while? It’s kind of early to go to sleep.” He hoped this would work, that Corey would join his pack, and even be his friend. He couldn’t give Corey back his life before the Doctors came, but he could give him something just as good.


End file.
